


Dead Moon

by Green_Demoness



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Acceptance, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood Drinking, Blood and Violence, Clingy Gabriel, First Love, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M, More characters to be added, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sick Character, Slow Burn, Soul Bond, Vampire Hunters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-06-29 00:43:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15718416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Green_Demoness/pseuds/Green_Demoness
Summary: Reaper's shadow loomed over the city, looking for a victim. His eyes linger at the windows, until the house of Morrison Family catches his attention. After finding a near dying, Jack Morrison, Gabriel feels a blossom of feeling that he had never felt before and now he wants to protect Jack by any means...





	1. Full Moon

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by the song "Dead Moon" by Brick + Mortar.
> 
> English is not my first language, so feel free to point out any mistake.
> 
> Italics are thought and/or whispers.

* * *

 

    The night air flapped through Gabriel’s coat, casting a trembling shadow over the cathedral roof. His red eyes lingered at the houses, trying to where he was going to find his new victim. The smoke of the fireplaces floated in the air, making dense gray clouds that partly hide the full moon shining in the sky. Except for one single house, the one which belonged to the Morrison family. They were new in the city. Gabriel knew so much about them as they knew about him. A true enigma. The citizens were so terrified of speaking about the Reaper, the vampire that stalked at night, that even whispering about him to newcomers was seen as a way of summon him.

_\- They are so afraid, that they don’t care about leaving some easy prey for me. Well, as long it is not their children._

    A pair of black wings arise from the dark aura that surrounded Gabriel, gliding him until he reaches the windowsill from the second floor. No lock, chain or cross could ever keep him away from what he wanted.

     The use his wraith form to pass under the window. Although the temperature outside was really icy, the room was not warmer than a frozen lake. The moonlight that entered through the glass panels falls over a bed where someone were shivering due the cold. Gabriel crawls up to the roof, where the darkness sheltered him, so no one would be able to see him closing in. The room looked almost empty, with just some silhouette of furniture, a ripped Overwatch recruit poster and the wooden bed resting in the other side of the room.

     Jack Morrison pulled the covers closer to him. He felt like he was freezing, though he was burning in a raging fever. Tuberculosis was consuming the young Morrison. At that time, there were no cure, just some herbs that mixed together that could placate the early symptoms of the illness. However, Jack’s health condition was worsening every day. His body ached and was so weak he almost could not stand on his feet. Coughing fits brought tears to his eyes whole night. The metallic taste of blood never left his mouth, but he did not get himself to look at the bloodstains in his pillow. Jack was afraid. Very afraid of dying.

     Awaking from a troublesome sleep, he notices a black blur moving over his head. But he cannot longer believe in what his eyes see, because that could be just another feverish hallucination. Until a cold hand touches his hot temple and hoarse deep voice speaks to him:

     - This fever is devouring you slowly….

    Jack feebly rises his hand, holding the wrist hanging over him. Gabriel gets slightly startled, as he thought the young man was in deep sleep. The blue shipwreck eyes stared into the vampire’s red ones.

     - Can you hear me, boy scout?

    Before Jack could answer him, a cough overcomes his lungs and the scarlet splashes fall over his mouth and chin. The warm, yet infected, blood was an irresistible invitation to Gabriel. He lows himself to the side of the bed, lying down on Jack. Gabriel cups Morrison’s face and licks off the blood on his lips. Something inside the Reaper stirs, as if he were alive again. A wild sparkle runs through his veins and his heart seems to briefly beat again. Gabriel, taken aback, stares with wide eyes the light-headed man in his front. He had never felt something like that before when drinking someone’s blood, let alone by a simple taste of it. Gabe had vaguely heard about it when he was a young vampire, but that sudden load of emotions and feelings sounded so dream-like that he had not believed it. Until now.

    Gabriel wanted to have a look at the man who was able to bring such long-forgotten feelings over him. He takes Jack out of his bed and carries him in his arms to the moonlit window. _“He was not supposed to be this light!"_ His hands feel the bones poking out the skin, noticing how terribly thin Jack was. _“If the fever did not kill him itself, any other thing would!”_. When the light touches the young man, Gabriel sees the paleness of his already white skin, that made the dark circles under his eyes appear even more markedly. His dry lips were blood-stained, and his arms had fallen limp from Gabe’s arms.

    Jack curls himself in Gabriel’s chest, seeking for any warmth in the man and this awakes more than attraction in the vampire. Gabriel really felt that he needed to protect that smaller figure by any means. His initial plan of simply sinking his fangs in Jack’s neck and leave him to his own suffering dismissal had turned into smoked. Nevertheless, he could not simply abandon the boy to be consumed by the sickness. Reaper had never felt something akin to love before, not even when he was alive.

    He had been a merciless mercenary on his living days. One day, he had the mission to murder a target in an abandoned warehouse, however, it was revealed to him that was just a trap to eliminate all witness, even the hitman himself. The bullet pierced through his back, taking out all the air out of his lungs and replacing it by bone shards and blood. He shot the man back, quickly killing him with a headshot. While he crawled out of the place, feeling Death putting its shroud over him, a strange female figure stepped out of the shadows and offered a deal, that now Gabriel realizes that was very similar to a pact with the Devil, a deal that would give him eternal life. It was so tempting to a dying man that he forgot asking what was the price for that gift. When the breathy and shaken “yes” escaped his lips, the dark figure sank his fangs on Gabriel’s neck. When the pain eased off his body, he understood his mistake. He would become an eternal blood-sucking creature, condemned to loneliness and shunned by the living. Not only that, but also bounded to another vampire until Death tears them apart.

    The opportunity of not being alone anymore was perishing in his own arms. He just need Jack to say “yes”. No vampire could turn another person into a vampire without their consent. Both parts needed agreeing to, therefore, being bounded forever. That stopped reckless vampires from turning whole cities into courts of vampires. Facing eternity was never a light load, but it was easier when done with someone else. _“Especially, someone who you love.”_ Such beautiful young man could not go waste by a mundane illness like that. _“It’s the right thing to do!”_.

    He sits under the window perch, cradling Jack in his lap. He runs his clawed hands through Morrison’s blond hair, feeling the soft strands caressing his skin. Jack was gazing at the moon and at the shadow that loomed over him. Everything was so surreal to Morrison that fact he was not in his bed and was near a complete unknown person did not dawn on him. Gabriel follows Jack’s gape, landing his eyes on the bright satellite. He strokes Morrison’s left cheek, whispering sweet nothings to him. _“Hermoso… muy_ _hermoso”_ and _“You will be as beautiful and everlasting as this moon in the sky.”_

    The effects of the tea were starting to wear off of Jack, making him less stunned to his surroundings, and then he felt he was being held by someone.

     - Who… who are you? - his voice sounded gruff because of the cough.

     - I’m Gabriel. And what is your name, my dear?

     - Ja..Jack. Where am I?

     - You are in your room, Goldilocks - pushing aside the golden strands out of Jack’s sweaty temple.

    The feeling of strangeness slowly grows in Jack, but his mind is still too hazed to grasp the danger he was in.

     - I don’t understand. Why are you here?

     - I came here because you are sick, Jack. I came to help you.

     - Help? Are you the archangel Gabriel?

     - No - he loved the way Jack pronounced his name - I’m the Reap...

    Before Gabriel could finish his sentences, Jack grabs the black fabric of his shirts with both hands, with tears running down his face and desperately said:

     - Please, save me, please... I don’t want to die.

     - Shhh, don’t worry, I am here for this.

    Gabriel ghosts his lips over the pulsing vein in Jack’s neck. The feverish heat emanates stronger near the chest and when he is done feeling the warmth, he sinks his fangs, making the blood gushes over the white skin, staining Jack’s nightshirt. While the vampire sucked the blood that flowed from the young man, Jack scraped his nails on the Gabriel’s back. A sudden pain cleared his mind, but soon it was dismissed to an unexplainable feeling of pleasure. For a second, Jack felt like he was going to melt in those arms and the whole universe were gone for a time. A sensation of warmness pooled in his stomach as he tangled his legs behind the Reaper. Gabriel finishes licking the blood off his lips, then he cut a vein in his wrist with one of his claw, making the blood streams out and dripped it over Jack’s mouth. Some drops fall over his face, awaking him from his state of ecstasy, enough to make him drink a little bit of blood on his crimson lips, completing the ritual, before Jack fell in the bottomless darkness of the sleep.

    Gabriel pulls the sleeve of his shirt and cleans the blood off Jack’s face and neck, and takes him back to his bed, already seeing how the young man looked more lively, with rosy cheeks and a stabler breathing. The Reaper arranges the covers around Jack. He could not refrain himself in thinking on how more handsome he looked now, with the advantage of being like that forevermore. He was about leaving when he saw the first golden rays rising up in the sky, but he turns back to lands a last kiss on Jack’s warm lips, before disappearing back into the shadows.

_We will meet again soon, mi alma, very soon._


	2. First Quarter Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack wakes up from a strange night. He feels better, but can't remember whatever he had dreamed. Gabriel is waiting to explain his lover's new life, but a vampire life is never easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, for the long time to update. University papers have been giving me a hard time. I will try to update faster as soon I have more free time.

     The golden rays of the sun poured over the city, killing the shadow and pushing the night creatures into hiding. The sparrows chirped as the first residents started flowing the streets with their daily routines. The sleepy motion of the carts filled the cobblestone pavements as the merchants put up their stalls. While life started anew outside, Jack was still in a peaceful slumber. The sun crept through the curtainless window and landed over his now rosy face.

     Jack wakes and sits in the edge of the mattress, feeling way better than night before. He is vaguely sure he had a dream, but only blurred images and torn pieces reaches his mind. _“That lemon tea is finally working!”_. Morrison takes off his nightshirt to change into his work clothes as he does every day. When he is about to fold the cloth, he sees the stains in the collar. It was a large and dark red splotch. It was too much blood to be done by a simple cough. He drops the shirt on the floor, setting on hand on his neck, then sprinting to the bathroom. The blonde looks for any kind of wound of cut in his skin. There was nothing really alarming beside two small punctures. Perfectly round, but lacking in depth. Jack felt no pain when he touched them. " _It looks recent, but I don’t get hurt on anything!"_ Those wounds were almost impossible, Jack barely left his bed in the last weeks. The illness had made a number on him. He shrugs and pushes the matter aside as he applied some antiseptic.

     As he washed his face, he notices his paleness was still the same, although the dark circles under his azure eyes had been gone. " _Great, I look less like a living dead_." The blood still puzzled him a bit, because there were no single spot of it in his skin. Maybe the fabric had absorbed all the scarlet liquid? He felt it was pointless to pursue such enigmas when he had a long day ahead of him.

     Jack goes downstairs, leaning against the wooden handrail. He expected to found his mother around, but the house was immersed in silence. Only the sounds outside reached Jack’s ears. " _She is probably helping daddy in the farm_." Without Jack’s help, Mr. Morrison would have to care of the farm, feed the animals, harvest the crops and plow the soil all alone. However, age was taking its toll on Jack’s father, and the young man was becoming more than a helping hand. His parents saw him continuing the family business, but Jack had another thing in his mind. His heart was in Overwatch. The military career had allured him as a siren song. He wanted to be a soldier, even a hero! The ripped poster - carefully glued again after torn into piece by Jack’s father during a quarrel - was the first and the last thing that Jack always looked at before sleeping. Soon, that would be more than a dream at night.

     He sips the lukewarm tea left in the kettle. His stomach churned when he was about to eat something before leaving. Although he had not eaten anything properly in last days, Jack imagined the lack of appetite would be a side effect of the sickness or the medicine tea itself. He puts on his boots - the ones he liked to think looked like combat boots - using the threshold stone as a bench.

     When the sunlight touches his eyes, he flinches, blinded for some seconds. Jack holds at the door knob to don’t lose his balance as the world goes spinning around him. Morrison breathes in and out to steady his dizziness. He had never felt something like that before. When the sensation stops and his eyes adjust to the new light, he makes his way to the farm.

     The wind blows through the corn stalks, waving them like a golden sea in the summer. The farm was outside the city, but not so far from their house. It was a request from Jack’s mother, who wanted Jack to enter the military academy. Mrs. Morrison supported Jack in his dreams, which lead the already uncountable arguments with her husband become even worse. But the old man was truly stubborn - a trait that Jack himself possessed too - and tried to dissuade Jack from becoming a soldier.

     As he passed by a neighbour farm, an acrid smell hits him like an arrow. Blood. The shriek of the slaughtered pigs echoed in the air. Though he hated gutting the animals and cleaning the flesh, he knew it was necessary. If he were a soldier, he would unable to hesitate before an enemy. As his mother always said: " _You must be careful, Jack or your big heart will get you hurt_."

     However, the faint smell was growing stronger. Suddenly, Jack feels his stomach grumble and licks his lips unconsciously. Strangely, now he was feeling hungry. Terribly hungry. As if there was a fire burning inside him. He tried shoving those thoughts aside, but the growl got louder.

     Jack felt his eyes twitch, and his vision get sharpened. The world becomes an explosion of colors, and he could see any branch, nook, grain that surrounded him. He looked marveled at the leaves of a tree, but all of sudden, his mind gets numb and the consciousness leaves him in the down of a switch.

* * *

 

    Gabriel was standing in front of an attic window of an abandoned house. That was his makeshift place. _"Nobody is going to complain anyways"_. Luckily for him, people avoided the house as if it was cursed. The dusty bones of the former owner were still scattered across the basement ground. He was the first victim of the newborn Reaper. A messy, violent and thirsty attack. He had no one to guide him through the dark paths of the vampire life, he had claw his way up.

     This makes him remember about Jack. The young man was surely awake. " _Dammit, he’s probably lost as a kitten"_. He lays his hand over his heart, feeling a hum that pulled him to north. To his beloved. He puts some little vials of blood inside his coat. He knew Jack would awake hungrily. His physical form starts fuming, slowing becoming a wraith, so he could pass from shadow to shadow easily. The daylight made him weak as any other vampire. He could still use his powers, but that would drain a lot of his energy. The myth that vampires turned into dust when touched by the sun was a convenient lie spread by horror stories.

     He was approaching a farm. Gabriel was afraid Jack would have attacked someone in a hazed state of mind, but the humming was coming from inside the barn. Gabriel pushes the big door aside, and the stench of blood quickly greets Gabe’s nose. A relief sweeps his heart. _Animal blood_. A red trail followed to a dark corner, where a sleeping form was splayed over a straw pile. Jack’s pale face was painted in crimson. His eyes fluttered as he shivered, turning from one side to another. " _He is in pain!"_ Animal blood was not suitable for vampires, especially newborn vampires. That could be a merely replacement in extreme cases of hunger, because their bodies reject that as a kind of poison.

     Gabriel sprints and cradles Jack in his arms. He looked so small and fragile like that, but Reyes knew there was a strong power laying dormant inside the young man, just waiting for the right moment to surface. Gabriel hands for a vial inside his coat. He takes the cork off and nears the bottle to Jack. The young vampire remains unresponsive, so the older uses his thumb to open Jack’s mouth, caressing his rosy lips. The red liquid makes Jack licks his lips, tasting whatever been given to him. He tries reaching the vial, but it was kept steady in Gabriel’s hands. Jack raise himself a little to drink more. It was like water to a man lost in the desert. So sweet. He wanted more and tries to grasp the glass bottle again.

      - Slow down, corazón, or you will get yourself choked!

    Jack’s vision and hearing started getting back to their normal, letting him out of the strange mist. He slowly takes account of his surroundings, and who was surrounding him. A sudden pulse of fear bursts in his chest, he crawls his way out of Gabriel’s lap and look at the dark wooden walls in confusion.

      - Who are you?! Where am I?! What is going on?!

      - Calm down, Jackie boy, there is a lot to be explained...

    Feeling his face wet with something, Jack wipes his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt, only to be shocked by the scarlet stains.

      - Stay away from me! - his elbow hits a spading fork, which he wields like a spear - I want some answers!

     Gabriel chuckles, rises his hands in a gesture of innocence and sits back in the straws. He knew that was always a difficult part. Explaining, teaching, discovering, and in this case, bonding. He would need light steps or Jack would simply run away, leaving a trail of havoc behind him, making himself an easy prey to vampire hunters.

      - It is okay, darling, one question per time - lowering his hands - and, please, put this thing down. I am not going to hurt you.

     Jack stabs the dirt with the spikes of the spading fork, but keeps a vice grip around in the handle.

      - Who the hell are you? - looking daggers to the man in his front.

      - I’m Gabriel Reyes.

      - Where am I?

     - In a barn. Hey, don’t look at me like that, Jack! I found you fainted here. I swear.

     - How… how do you know my name?

     - You told me. Yesterday, while the fever was devouring your pretty face.

      If Jack was not leaning against the spading fork, he would have fallen, because his knees failed him at that moment. His memory started working like gears inside his head. The blurred dream was getting lucid in his mind. The blood on his clothes. Those wounds on his neck.

     He is taken back to the moment of the dream. His hands clasped in Gabe’s clothes. There was an uneasiness in the air, as if he was watching the scene through the eyes of another person. He hears himself begging for salvation. Gabriel’s fangs shining in the moonlit before breaking his skin. The crimson liquid falling over his lips.

 _"No! No! It can’t be! I can’t believe that…"_ As if Reaper could read his thoughts, he finishes Jack’s dreaded sentence.

      - I turned you into a vampire - getting up and opening his arm in a saviour gesture - it was the only way I could save your life, Jack !

     Jack retrieves the spading fork and points it to Reaper. He was scared. Every time he tried to put the scene aside in his mind, more it was more iron marked in his brain. He wanted to deny it. To don’t believe it. But he couldn’t not bring up nothing to fool himself.

     - No! I am not a monster! Stay away from me!

     Jack throws the tool aside and tries to pass through Gabriel to get to the barn door, but the older man catches him by his waist, holding him in place. Jack squirms and tries to scream, but Gabe covers his mouth. _"We don’t need to invite more people to this hell."_

      - Jack, please stop… Dammit!

     Jack hits Gabriel’s jaw with his elbow, leaving him briefly stunned. It was enough to Jack escapes from his arms and follow the first open path he finds.

     Gabriel lets a frustrated growl and hits his fist against the wall. He had screwed up. That meeting was supposed to run smoothly, where he was going to explain Jack’s new condition and, maybe, persuade him to leave by his side. _"But no! Jack was scared, confused and probably hating him with all his heart."_

     He stops and tries to focus where would have Jack gone. He needs to think fast. That small vial would not be enough to quench the hunger of a young vampire for a long time. He had to save him. **To save others from him.**

     Jack swam through the cornfields, slapping the cornstalks aside with a ragged breathing. He stops to take some air and listen out for the other vampire. Only the wind whispered above his head. He was not being chased anymore. The blood has dried on his face, leaving a dark streak on his chin. His knees buckle under him, taking him to the ground. Jack starts hyperventilating. Then the blonde touches his heart, trying to feel an accelerated beating. There was none. _"No! No! I can’t be true! It is a nightmare!"_ He felt dirty, corrupted and desolated. He wanted to clean that blood out of him. He wanted to go home and wake up from that hell.

     The sun slowly descends toward the horizon, painting the sky in dark colors. As Jack ran back to his parents’ house, the vampiric powers flowed inside his body, making his skin look paler. His eyes got a scarlet hue and a mean grin was suddenly imprinted on his face. Beside this, the myriad of colors and shapes returned to his sight. A strange glow surrounded him, but unlike Reaper, it was a golden light, which gave him the aura of a fallen angel. This catches up his attention.

    The light, that emanates from his fingertips, softly erasing up the dirt. He rubs his hands over his face and neck, cleaning the blood caked on them. The bite wounds were completely healed, leaving no scars. _"I… can I heal myself? How is it even possible?"_ It was different from any vampire tale he had ever heard.

    He rushed home. There was a whirlpool of thoughts, fears, expectations running through his head. The moon was slowly rising in the sky, bringing darker times.


	3. New Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long update. Things are not running smoothly latety in personal (even national) level. I was in high spirits that the third chapter would be finished on the end of the month, and, well, I was very wrong. Almost dipped my foot on the mental breakdown water, but I grasped myself together before that. I really hope the next chapter goes out sooner.
> 
> English is not my first language, so feel free to point out any mistake.
> 
> (I am very happy with the announce of Soldier 76's sexuality - my ship is (almost) real)

* * *

     Jack enters silently in the house, carefully stepping the floorboards. A single “crack” would betray his stealthy presence and, the worst, bringing his parents’ attention to a problem that he wasn’t ready to deal with.  _ Will I be ready one day? What would I say? “Ma and Pa, I become a vampire! Is it nice?”  _ He shrugs the thought away. Joking wouldn’t help him nor make the matter lighter.

     He didn’t know whether his parents were already at home or not. His mother was usually around at that time of night, but since she was probably at the farm with his father, they would arrive together. By other hand, they could have arrived and looked for Jack, not finding him. What would lead them to searching for him in the surroundings or at friends’ houses. Morrison could almost see the worried face of his mother, knocking from one door to another. He sighs with that never-ending nightmare.

     The young man turns the bathroom’s lights on, and he is greeted by his pale reflection on the mirror.  _ An undeniable monster. _ All the cheeriness he had in the morning - the vain hope of getting better - was completely lost during the day, leaving a barren field to the misery. He lays his hands at the sides of the sink, trying to ground himself in the present, but his mind drifted to the previous events. In special, to Gabriel. The dark and handsome man who transformed him into a vampire. The creature that claimed to save his life. The endearment titles and the soft way he had treated him.

     There was something that Jack could grasp. Something that looked off. Vampires were supposed to kill their victims by sucking all their blood. Not helping out near-dying humans like an undead Samaritan. It was like everything he knew about vampires were wrong.  _ Maybe purposely wrong. _ Morrison looks again at his milk-white hands contrasting against the yellowish sink. There was a faint golden light emanating from his fingers, barely visible for an unaware eye. The power he saw on his desperate flight among the cornstalks and, also, his newly improved eyesight.

     His abilities were out of the “common vampire” book. He wondered at which length they would work. A mere bloodstain was very different from a…  _ wound? _ Jack eyes the unlit hallway and picks up the razor blade in the bathroom cabinet. The sharp edge opens a long line in the flesh of his palm, oozing the crimson liquid over the porcelain. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. The golden glow intensified around him and the gash on his hand slowly started to close. 

 

     - Jack?! What are you doing?! - yelps a woman voice behind him.

 

     Jack sees her eyes going from his hand, to the bloody sink to, then, landing onto his ruby red eyes. She walks backwards towards the door, suppressing a scream under her hands. 

 

     - Mom! Wait! I… I can explain it, please, just listen!

 

    However, before Jack could utter any other word, his father storms into the room with a hunting rifle in hands. Again, the staring game ensues, but the old man is not frozen by fear like Jack’s mother. He rises the gun, finger on the trigger, aiming at Jack, and puts himself between Jack and his wife. 

 

     -What are you?! And what you have done with my son?!

     -Dad! It’s me, Jack!

     - Hell, you ain’t him. You’re a monster!

 

      The old man’s blue eyes slide to the mirror, where Jack’s true form is reflecting. The young man looked like he was dead for days. White to the bone and deep red eyes. The ability of looking like a normal human had vanished as the night come. He didn’t more look like a fallen angel, but a fiend.  _ I wasn’t looking like this before! What’s going on?! _ Any chance that Jack could have dreamed of telling his parents what had happened to him were suddenly gone. He looked like a monster. He  **felt** like a monster.

     Jack gazes into his parent’s eyes one last time. It was pointless to try to explain the inexplicable. He backs for the open window and jumps away merely second from being hit by the rifle bullets. Tears stream down his cheeks as he runs through the narrow streets haphazardly. The alleys and theirs sharp curve seemed like an endless labyrinth. Some residents were awakened by the footfalls echoing in the curb. Some lights were turned on and some braver ones opened windows and searched for whoever dared to disturb the silence of the night.

     No one sane would be walking through downtown in those dead hours. Jack took it in account when crossing the stone plaza. He could feel the vampiric powers starting overflowing his body. It was hard to control or push down. In few minutes of hindering the frenzied blood thirst of overpowering him, he had a ragged breath and stumbled his way forward.  _ Just some more squares and I’ll be in the outskirts of the city. _ However, fate grimly decided to send a man in his path. Not insane, but completely drunk. The drunken appear on the same street as Jack, leaning against the walls of the house with a wine bottle still in hands. The deafening sound of a heart beating takes over Jack’s hearing and his eyes locks predatorily on the man. His conscience slips like it had done in the fields, leaving him at mercy of his own instincts.

    The drunk man sees a blurry image quickly approaching him. It looked too big to be a dog, but inhumanly agile to be a person. He got hit against the stone wall. Pain radiates through his skull, making his vision worsen from the impact. Before he could scream for help, a set of sharp canines fall upon his neck, eliciting an incoherent gasp from the man.

     A sensation of death, like sleeping in a frozen field, takes over the night wanderer, rendering him defenseless. The hot and inebriate blood, that now runs through Jack’s veins, lights up all his senses. The fog inside the head of the vampire starts dissipating and his human side gets back in the control. Jack pulls himself from the man, which still breathes. The young man looks at his bloodied hands and a pang of guilty fills his undead heart.  _ “This is not what I am to become!”.  _ Jack was usually a selfless man, almost at the point of destruction. He would try all options, including giving up his wishes, if it could solve the problems. This and his stubbornness were like two plates on a scale, each fighting to overcome the other.  

     Jack summons up his healing powers, but it doesn’t cure the man fully. He still looked like he was dragged away from Death’s door. Some color had got back on his cheeks and his breath was no longer ragged. Panic arouses from the drunk man, who in vain tries to push Jack off him. Again, the strong feeling of duty induces Jack into making a poor choice. He covers the man’s mouth, so he would not attract the attention of the neighbors and drags him until near the guards’ watch.

     The blonde grabs a stone and throw against the casement, making the windows rattle outside. Not much after, a guard appears with a lantern in search of the disturbance. When the man finds the wounded drunk, he calls for the medic. Jack observes the two other men carrying his almost victim inside. He lefts before the guards came back.

     A bunch of worried faces looks at the man covered in blood. They are familiar with the vampire trouble, but it was different. The corpse of the victims of Reaper never appeared, giving the aura of a simple runaway, and moreover, they never escaped alive. That meant there was another vampire in town. The population put a silence pact over Reaper, that turned into a Russian roulette, a “not my family, not my problem” thing. Let the outsiders, and newcomers suffer as long he didn’t attack their beloved ones. It was pointless to hunt a vampire who was “protected” by everyone like a historical ruin. However, this new vampire was a threat to everyone.

     They took notes on where he was in the time of the attack, and mainly, how the vampire looked like. The guards were not oblivious to the fact that the creatures could walk among them without any kind of hindrance. Sooner or later, someone would talk about something strange happening, a mysterious disappearance or unsettling noise in the night, and hints would lead to its den. However, they couldn’t simply spare any task force to hunt the new beast. They had no training, nor tools and neither courage to that. A scared voice tells about a vampire hunter that lived in the other city. They waste no time, sending a saddled horse with a messenger.   

 

                             ----------------------------------x------------------------------------

 

     Reaper returns to Morrison’s house . It was the only place where he could hope to find the young man. The hum that bond them was weak, giving faint directions to Gabriel. Instead of finding his beloved, he was greeted by the bullet holes in the window casement. The window was still open with the curtains flying through the room with the wind, but he didn’t dare to enter the place. Something was wrong. Using his wraith form, he lows himself to the first floor where he hid among the thick bushes facing the living room.

     A couple, that Gabriel assumed to be Jack’s parents, were placing crosses and garlic garlands around the houses. Even though those item could not harm him or Jack, that meant they already knew that was a vampire around. Probably the reencounter with Jack had not run smoothly as the blond had intended to be. Reyes himself never had a problem like that; he was a lone wolf when he was turned into a vampire. No one to tell, but no one to support him. Sometimes, Reaper couldn’t tell if being alone in the world was a curse or a blessing.

     Again, the breezelike hum was pulling North. Leaving Jack scared and confused was a big mistake, and he was more than willingly to fix that. Gabriel was not like other vampires, who left their “offspring” running amok and being a target by hunters around the world. Or even worse, downright manipulating them into henchmen for their twisted wishes like happened to him. That call for responsibility always deterred him from creating a new vampire. Although it sounded paradoxical, starting from the point he was a vampire, a bloodsucker creature, a dead-hearted killer, he didn’t want to drown the world in chaos.

    However, in the night he met Jack, something stronger compelled him into turning the young man into an eternal soul. It was more than simply attraction or pity. It was like a spark has ignited inside him.  _ That’s so cliché! But somehow I felt… alive again.  _ He was usually skeptical with “love by first sight” concept, yet that struck him like an arrow. He could no longer deny it.

     As the wraith flies over the rooftops, the hum gets louder and clearer. It was no longer a spinning compass. It was firmly pointing to the city exit. In the way, he spots a puddle of blood. The scent hits his nose suddenly. Human and somewhat still warm. It could be just the result of a fight. It could be just someone injured. It could be just a petty murder. However, his senses were telling him that had something with Jack. As a young vampire, his hunger would turn him into a slave of his primary needs until he was strong enough to master it.

     The silhouette of a bridge, that connected two cities, forms in the nocturnal fog. The hum was tolling like a cathedral bell inside his chest, meaning his partner was in distress. As Gabriel approached the base of the bridge, a muffled sob is heard. Jack is leaning against the stone structure, hands covering his face. The crimson droplets fall at his feet as he rocked forth and back.

     Gabriel opens his mouth to say something, but no words finds the way out of his throat. His footsteps echos in the bridge, making Jack eyes who was getting close. He gets up in a dash, but doesn’t run, just hostilely squints at Gabriel, as facing an enemy. His hands turn into fists and his mouth becomes a threatening line. 

 

     - You are responsible for all this hell!

     -  Jack! I… I am sorry! I was just trying to… 

 

      Jack interrupts him before he could say anything else and barks back to him.

 

     - Trying what?! What was your point in turning me into a monster?! What did I have done to you?!

     -  I was just trying to help! You were dying! I never had any intention of causing you trouble. Let me help you now!

     -  You already “helped” me too much… - his voice ends in a snarl.

     -  I committed a big mistake with you, Jack. You didn’t want to die, but I think I gave you something worse than death. 

 

     For a second, Jack remembers grasping Reaper and begging him to save his life. Gabriel was right. Being a vampire was being a terrible experience, but the thought of simply vanishing from existence was much more terrifying.

 

     - I should have granted you more chance of choice. I didn’t have the chance when it happened to me - his voice was shaking from the sudden flow of feelings - but I was so blind out of despair and…

 

      He could not bring himself to say it.  **He doesn’t dare to say “love”.** His words sounded true and heartfelt to Jack. The danger, nemesis that Reaper represented minutes before had vanished and in his place was just a broken man. Jack lets his hands fall at his sides and sits back against the wall of the bridge.

 

     - How had you become a vampire?

 

     The blond knew it was a blunt question, but he felt he needed to know all the truth or, at least, know all he could about Gabriel Reyes before letting the man stir his fate again.

 

     - When I was human, I was a mercenary. I would not give a second thought on a target after the money was paid. The concept of moral was something I learned with difficult through these years...

 

     Reaper’s mind takes him back to the very day his life went downhill. The day his foot slid on the sand, and he got himself in the claws of a vampire. He silently approached the abandoned warehouse, eyeing the man he was supposed to kill waiting for the buyer. The plan was relatively simple. His contractor wanted the other man dead, actually his associate, so he could take over all the business. Gabriel even marveled how the man would persuade the victim’s family into selling their share, but pushed the matter aside.  _ It is none of my businesses, anyway. _

     Reaper places himself behind some crates and pulls his shotgun. He could sneak up the man and cut his throat, but he preferred a quick and painless as possible death for his targets. A bloody killing could be the ultimate ruin of a sloppy killer. He never ever had cared about his victims. If they had or not reason to be killed, it never entered on Reaper’s line of thought.

     With a wet thud, the dead man’s body hits the floor with a loud echo. Before Gabriel could ever think of picking a bucket with water to clean the crime scene, he says some shadows moving and not so quiet steps moving toward him.  _ Shit, it is a fucking trap! _ His contractor wanted a perfect crime, no matter the cost. He does his best to cover behind some crates and to shoot his new foes. The empty warehouse made the sound of the bullets echoes like an orchestra from Hell. Screams, metal clinking, bullets ricocheting and ragged breaths soared for minutes that seemed like an eternity for Reaper.

     Suddenly, everything is silence. Just Gabriel is breathing hard. He scopes the place, some men hanging dead from the higher platforms and others were in their death throes. The brunette runs to the door. From somewhere Reaper could not see there was a tall shadow with bloody hands watching the aftermath of the carnage. She knows it was not over yet. There were only two lefts. The others were too near to death to be transformed into vampires.

     Before Gabriel could even reach the door frame, his lungs are pierced by a bullet. The man put his hand over the wound that oozes blood and bone shards. He reaches his shotgun and sees a man with a fuming gun on one hand and the other lower on his stomach holding his guts in place. He easily headshots the man and crawls out the warehouse.  _ I can’t die! Not like this! _ His vision starts to blur and each breath burns inside him. A pair of red heels appears in front of him, halting his desperate escape. When Gabriel looks up, he sees a hellish red-haired woman looming over him. 

 

     - I can save you, assassin. With a price.

 

     Gabriel barely registered the words that fall from the crimson mouth. He grasps flimsily at the woman’s legs as if they were a plank of salvation. 

     - Please, help me!

     -  Do you want eternal life? Don’t you want to die? - as she drinks the agony from the dying face of Gabriel.

     -  Y-yes!

     -  So be it.

 

     The dark figure, Moira as he knew some time after, sank his fangs on Gabriel, sucking the last lints of life on his body. But before his mind simply fell on the mists of oblivion, he feels a hard pull on his heart. The pain was similar it were being torn apart from his chest. With a sensation of a thousand of needles pricking at the same time, Gabriel feels his body mending itself together. Not a single mark stays where the bullet hole was. The man touches the new patch of skin with confusion. 

 

     - You are bound to me while I live. I hope you are the obeying type. 

 

     Realization hit Gabriel as a ton of bricks. He can’t utter a single word or retort, just stand paralyzed by the conflicting thought and feelings that swarmed through him. 

 

     - I am sorry you had to pass through this - says Jack with a compassionate sigh.

     -  It’s okay, Jack. Moira was killed by a vampire hunter a long time ago and I ended getting used to this “life”- he halfheartedly laughs, almost a hollow sound - Well, now I have to ask you something and the decision will be entirely yours. Do you want me to help you with your transformation?

 

     Jack thinks on his options. He could reject Gabriel’s guidance and follow his own path now.  _ Path? Where am I supposed to go now? I have nowhere left to go! _ His family no longer believed he was their son. He was cruelly kicked out of his nest and turned into a lone wanderer. The earlier incident weighed on his consciousness. He could’ve killed the drunken man if his human side had not interfered in time. It was too dangerous to others and to himself to he remains all by himself. However, the bitterness of losing his family and having to give up on his military dreams still stung inside him. 

 

     - If I say yes, will I be bound to you forever or I will be able to go away when I want?

 

     Gabriel was caught off guard by the question. It was something hard for him to consider. He no way wanted his lover to go away from him, but want would he do?  _ I can’t be the same monster that Moira was. I can’t keep him like a dog on a leash just to please myself. _ Love only survives as a free bird.

 

     - Yes, you can leave whenever you feel ready.

     -  I want you to help me.

**Author's Note:**

> The vampires here deviate from the "Canon Vampire" hehe 
> 
> I will try to update this fic as soon I have free time
> 
> Thank you for reading =)


End file.
